By Edzorna Francis Mensah
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced that Ghana is making a lot of progress in the administration of justice attributing it to the fact that in the recent past a total of seventy-six (76) Judges and Magistrates were appointed.
They comprised a new Chief Justice, two (2) new Justices of the Supreme Court, twenty-three (23) new High Court Judges, twenty-nine (29) new Circuit Court Judges, and twenty-one (21) new Magistrates.
According to the President, a total of two hundred and sixty-two (262) staff were recruited to address some of the human resource gaps created because of the newly established courts throughout the country.
He said, “in January 2024, three (3) additional Justices have been appointed to the Supreme Court to replace three (3) Justices who have retired from the Court. We have made unprecedented progress in the provision of court buildings and residences for judges around the country. In 2020, the Government set out to construct one hundred (100) courthouses with residential facilities nationwide. As at 31st January 2024, sixty-seven (67) courthouses had been successfully inaugurated, and are in use at various sites around the country. Twelve (12) completed projects have been slated for inauguration by the end of this month of February 2024”.
The remaining twenty-one (21) projects, according to him, are at various stages of completion, and are expected to be completed and inaugurated before May 2024, “in addition, one hundred and twenty-one (121) residential units have been constructed for judges throughout the country. Further, twenty (20) fully furnished 4-bedroom units, together with social amenities, have been constructed for Justices of the Court of Appeal in Kumasi. The project is not complete yet, but we have done enough to be able to say that we have resolved the problem of the disgraceful state of court buildings”.
Reporting on e-court to quicken justice delivery, President Akufo-Addo said, the Judicial Service has undertaken a digitalization initiative to modernize legal operations, and foster greater access to justice as he noted that, “a virtual court system was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the continuity of business. The virtual court system was rolled out to seventeen (17) courts, and then, subsequently, to nineteen (19) High Courts for the smooth hearing of court cases. By the end of December 2023, one hundred and sixty (160) courts had been equipped with devices for the real-time transcription of cases, in addition to fifty-one (51) courts piloting the paperless court system in Accra”.
Also, on the Court system of justice delivery, The President stressed that point that, “the integration of real-time transcription devices in one hundred and sixty (160) courts has revolutionized the way in which court proceedings are recorded and documented. The service is rolling out a comprehensive digitalization of the court system. The Attorney-General has continued, in a very effective manner, the tradition under this administration of contesting every civil litigation against the state, and has avoided the numerous judgement debts that used to be given against the state”.
